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1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to methods for redirecting, linking and directory assisting on the Internet and more particularly to a linking method based on telephone numbers with a feature of utilizing the linking method to build traffic to view advertisements.
2. Related Art
There is a global computer network comprised of a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. This global computer network is commonly referred to as the xe2x80x9cInternet.xe2x80x9d Resident on these computers and computer networks are documents and applets which are referred to as xe2x80x9cresources.xe2x80x9d These resources are assessable to a general public of Internet users.
Currently, there are an estimated over 5 million registrations to establish sites on the Internet from which resources can be made assessable and an estimated 5 billion pages of resources on the Internet. Business has readily flocked to the Internet to establish sites at which to sell goods and services. Besides sites by businesses, there are numerous content providers of information, graphics, music and the like. In addition, private persons have established sites.
An addressing scheme for accessing resources on the Internet is the xe2x80x9cworld wide web.xe2x80x9d Each resource is assigned an address for locating that resource on the web which is called a Uniform Resource Locator (xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d). A key part of the URL is a portion referred to as the xe2x80x9cdomain name.xe2x80x9d The domain name is unique and recognizable. The allowable length of a domain is 67 characters. Another part of the URL is referred to at the top level domain name. The top level domain (xe2x80x9cTLDxe2x80x9d) name is a suffix that goes onto the domain name. There currently are three TLDs (e.g., .com, .net and .org) which may be increased to seven. Under the web, resources are referred to as xe2x80x9cweb sitesxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cweb pages.xe2x80x9d
A browser is a special-purpose application program that effects the requesting of resources and the displaying of resource. An Internet user that goes looking for resources is referred to as a xe2x80x9csurfer.xe2x80x9d A browser has an address box in which to enter a URL. It is difficult for Internet users/surfers to remember or record URLs for entry into a browser address box. Further, it is tedious for Internet users/surfers to type into the address box a URL.
There is no xe2x80x9cofficialxe2x80x9d listing of what is available and/or official xe2x80x9ctable of contentsxe2x80x9d for the world wide web. This has resulted in a number of web sites called xe2x80x9cportalsxe2x80x9d that offer search engines which provide a search interface covering a large range of world wide web resources. The search engines are based on searching key terms and using Boolean logic to connect the key terms (that is -and-, -or- and -not-). The search engines are cumbersome to use. Further, the search engines generate results which are not of interest to the web surfer.
The World Wide Web is an attractive venue in which advertise products and services. Content providers, web sites by businesses and web sites by private persons motivate individuals to surf the Internet and spend time on the Internet. Time spent by individuals on the Internet is rivaling time spent watching television. The price of personal computers has become and is becoming generally affordable and they are commonplace in households. In addition, the world wide web can be accessed through televisions enabled to render web page (that is xe2x80x9cweb TVxe2x80x9d), cellular telephones, palm top computing aids and microprocessor enhanced telephones. The Internet provides an opportunity for advertising that rivals commercial television.
There is an advertising opportunity that arises out of the problems Internet users face in finding a web site. The portals for search engines display of one or more advertisements. The advertising at these portals has limitations. The advertising is either unfocussed general advertising or based on an Internet user""s past surfing history. The advertising is not targeted to an Internet users immediate wants and needs.
A partial solution to the limitations of the search engine is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,776 by Gifford (filed on Jun. 7, 1995) which allows the use of a telephone number to find the web site belonging to an individual, business or other entity. This patent teaches a method which involves an Internet establishing a first socket (also called a channel) and submitting a telephone number. At the remote web site, the telephone number is mapped to a URL using a translation database. The remote web site sends back to the Internet user a REDIRECT command. Using this redirect command, the Internet user establishes a second at the URL and retrieves the desired web site. The methodology is deficient in that lacks an efficient way to map a telephone number to a web site; does not directly display a web page; requires the transmission of four packets over two sockets; is slow and time consuming; is subject to transmission failures; and does not provide any vehicle for targeted advertising.
A partial solution to the limitations in advertising on the Internet is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,643 by Judson (filed on Oct. 11, 1995). This patent teaches a method n to display a xe2x80x9cpopupxe2x80x9d advertisement when the user clicks a hyperlink on web page. This is accomplished by encoding the web page with a masked xe2x80x9cminixe2x80x9d hypertext documents (or applet) containing an advertisement which resides in the computers memory (RAM), without the user knowing it, ready for display upon the clicking of a hyperlink. The Judson methodology is limited to advertisements that are encoded in the presently being viewed web page and does not allow for advertising by third parties. A further deficiency is that it is not operatively connected to a search engine and concomitantly no targeting of focussed advertisement to a web surfer.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methodology by which to efficiently and effectively navigate the web by telephone numbers.
There exists a need for a simplified methodology which involves fewer transmissions across the Internet over fewer channels (also called sockets) where a Internet user goes from inputting a telephone number to a desired web page.
There exists a need for a methodology by which to present an Internet user with a targeted advertisement while that user seeks to view a desired web page upon inputting a telephone number.
There exists a need for a business method by which to sell advertisement to advertisers who desire to have advertisements viewed by a web surfer who is surfing the net with an interest in the advertiser""s goods or services.
There exists a need for a method to display focussed advertisements to web surfer that are targeted to that surfers present interests and needs.
The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and generally overcomes the presently known deficiencies in the art.
The present invention is directed to a methodology that efficiently and effectively takes an Internet user form submitting a telephone number to viewing a web page. The present invention is further directed to a methodology to display a targeted advertisement to an Internet user for a good or service which is of present interest to the Internet user based on that Internet user""s desire to view a web page corresponding to a particular telephone number.
It is object of the present invention to provide a simple and quick method for an Internet user to navigate to a web page by typing a telephone number. It is another object of the present invention to reduce the number of packet transmissions and sockets (channels) that occur in a redirect. It is another object of the present invention to provide a more efficient method to translate a telephone number to viewing a web page.
It is object of the present invention to utilize traffic generated by a telephone number to web page server to build an audience for advertisements on the net. It is another object of the present invention to provide an enhanced method of advertising on the Internet which displays to Internet users advertisements that are of immediate interest to the Internet user are presented to that user.
One aspect of the present invention is a method for an Internet user to view a web page. The method comprised steps which are as follows. There is established a web page server where the server has a URL address and an Internet interface which allows remote access through the Internet. There is established a directory database server with a directory database comprised of registrant telephone numbers and associated therewith registrant web pages. An Internet user establishes a socket to the web page server at its URL address through the Internet. The Internet user interacts with the web page server where the user""s interaction includes at least part of a telephone number. There is executed a query of the directory database to yield a query result comprising a registrant web site page corresponding to the user interaction. This followed by a sending the page to the Internet user through the socket established by the Internet user.
Another aspect of the present invention utilizes the above method to generate traffic for advertisements on the Internet. This aspect of the invention expounds on the previous method as follows. The directory database also includes registrant criteria. There is established an advertising server with an advertising database comprised of advertiser criteria and associated therewith advertising objects. There is an executing of query of the advertising database to yield a query result of an advertising object for an advertiser whose criteria correlates with the criteria for registrant whose page is being sent to the Internet user. There is a sending of the advertising object to the Internet user.
The previously described versions of the present invention has many advantages which include a fast, efficient and simple method to take an Internet user from a telephone number to a web page and the web page can be any page at a web site. Additional advantages are a reduced likelihood of an error or failure and multiple telephone numbers being mapped to the same web site. A further advantage is delivering to an advertisement to the Internet user based on that Internet user""s present interest.